The dredging services division of Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has implemented a R15-million maintenance dredging campaign at the Port of Cape Town to restore the design depths inside the Duncan dock.
The maintenance campaign, which was started two weeks ago and is scheduled for completion by the end of April, will ensure continued safe navigational channels and berthing facilities for shipping by restoring the original design depths.Two dredging vessels have been commissioned to complete the task – trailing suction hopper dredger the Isandlwana and grab hopper dredger the Italeni – with multibeam bathymetric surveys undertaken at regular intervals.
The Isandlwana, which has a 4 200 m³ hopper capacity, will remove about 70 000 m³ of material from the seabed before the end of April.TNPA’s fleet renewal programme has boosted the dredging division’s capacity to aid the removal of about four-million cubic metres of excess material from the seabed every year at South Africa’s ports.
